1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for assembling at least two pressurized fluid control members which takes the form of an interface to which said control members, which are essentially pneumatic, are fixed.
The technical field of the invention is the production of control units for actuators for valves used in the agriculture-foodstuffs and sanitation industries.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A control unit of the above kind has various components such as electrical terminal blocks, detectors, control, command and regulation electronic modules and all kinds of pressurized fluid control members, such as solenoid valves or electrically-operated distributor valves, which, by allowing a control fluid, preferably compressed air, to pass or not, selectively actuate the opening and/or the closing of a valve. These control units are generally mounted directly on the top of the valve, on the one hand to simplify the assembly of the valve and to reduce the length of the control pipes and on the other hand to enable monitoring by means of any cam and sensor device of the position of the mobile members of the valve, a part of which, such as the end of the actuator rod, can therefore project into the control unit.
In the case of units currently known in the art which have to house at least two control members, such as solenoid valves, external to the block proper on which they are fixed, either their size (height or diameter) is increased, which is a problem because it increases the overall size of the valve, or the size of the solenoid valves is reduced, which is to the detriment of their control fluid flow cross section, which compromises the valve closing or opening speed.
The units are generally cylindrical, so as to be continuous with the body of the valve, and the space available inside them is limited by the many members to be housed in them: also, at present, when it is required to use at least two control members, such as two solenoid valves, mounted on a common interface unit enabling flow of the control fluid, it is impossible, without increasing the size of the control unit or reducing that of the solenoid valves, to place the valves there along with their interface unit, because the resulting assembly is of generally parallelepiped shape and occupies a relatively large volume.
The problem that arises is that of being able to produce valve actuator control units of the above kind, intended in particular for the agriculture-foodstuffs and sanitation industries, in which at least two if not three or more control members, such as solenoid valves, electrically-operated distributor valves or any pressurized fluid logic elements (such as essentially pneumatic elements, referred to in the present description by the generic term "control members" or the more specific term "solenoid valves") are housed therein, within a compact overall size and within a volume whose external shape is curved, such as a circular cylinder, without compromising the performance of the valve actuators in terms of the control fluid flowrate.
One solution to the problem stated is a system for assembling at least two pressurized fluid control members, where said fluid is preferably gas and even compressed air, which takes the form of an interface to which said control members are fixed and including fluid flow pipes. The pipes connect in particular at least the feed and outlet orifices of the control members which actuate opening and closing of at least one valve of a foodstuffs product conveyor circuit.